


do not go gentle

by imperialhare



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: COUNTER/Weight finale spoilers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2016-10-30
Packaged: 2018-08-28 00:08:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8423068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperialhare/pseuds/imperialhare
Summary: A few snippets from the post-Chime life of Cassander Timaeus Berenice, and the other two siblings of House Pelagios.





	

Cass brought the Apokine home. It was easy, so much easier than they could have imagined -- and their homesickness, both Cass’s own and the Apokine’s, was greater than they had realized.

Sokrates and Euanthe prepared a hasty delegation to meet them, and the two siblings looked as Cass expected them - Euanthe still wearing the royal cloth of old Apostolos, and Sokrates dressed more metropolitan, with the kind of fashion you could see in formal situations throughout the sector, but subtly patterned with a bit of Apostolisian flair.

"So this is Apokine," Sokrates said. When they had sat in what used to be the throne room, Cass had reached out to them across space using the power of the Apokine. In that moment, Sokrates had felt something very old and very right, something that spoke to their very blood - the ideals of that long ago Apostolos, carried to them through time.

"It looks like..." Euanthe paused. Their gaze shifted between the Apokine and the faces of Cass and Sokrates. The three children of House Pelagios looked undeniably like siblings, and the Apokine looked like them. It looked like their royal parent, gods lay them to rest. "It looks like us."

It didn't surprise Euanthe, though, when Sokrates shook their head. "Look closer." They smiled, with the calm and learned patience of integrity. "It looks like all Apostolisians."

***

Cassander wanted to protest when Sokrates put their name into the pool. Cassander was a pilot, a soldier, a doctor - a mercenary, a smuggler, a criminal, a wanted individual - every one of those things before they were a politician.

"It wouldn't be right for the pilot of the Apokine to be excluded from the selection pool," Sokrates said. There was another force at play here - Sokrates was beloved, but the people wanted Cass to be Apokine. To exclude Cass from the selection pool, even if it was of their own desire, would certainly cause unrest. Just the mythic power of that ancient machine would be enough to put Cass on the throne.

Cass reminded themselves that it wasn't a throne anymore. They felt sheepish for a moment, knowing that Sokrates corrected their guests dozens - maybe even hundreds of times a day. Not Emperor. Not the throne room. Not a royal palace. Not the Apostolisian Empire. If Cass became Apokine they would have to do the same, and their temper wasn't anywhere near as good as Sokrates'.

In what once was the throne room, Cass could look up above Sokrates' head and see the spot where the banner of the empire had once hung above what once was the throne. Now, instead of a throne there was a desk, behind which sat the second child of House Pelagios, busily poring over documents and rearranging diagrams on the holo-screens. A moment passed before Sokrates looked up again, met Cass's worried gaze, and smiled.

"I believe in you, Cass. You'll be a fine head of state. The people already love you." They laughed, and added, "And there are term limits."

If Cass looked hard enough, they could see the tendrils of the Divine Integrity underneath Sokrates' skin, like a strange system of black veins that spread outward from their neck. Seeing it still made Cass's skin crawl, but acting on their grudge was pointless here. Sokrates had it under control.

"Is Euanthe in the pool?" Cass asked, even though they already knew the answer.

Sokrates laughed again, but sadly this time. "Euanthe told me that they would make the Demarchy the Apostolisian Empire again given half the chance. I couldn't possibly risk giving them the power... The Demarchy is so young. Every day, I speak to people who call me Emperor, just out of habit. I remember where all the royal banners used to hang... The royal portraits of us and our parents... I know the Demarchy teeters between the people who believe in democracy and the people who want to see the once-royal heir in charge again. For those groups, I myself am a compromise between the two - and a poor compromise, at that. I know how they see me. I remember growing up in these halls. I'm sure you do, too."

Cass nodded.

"Another term, with you... you could hold that line, possibly even better than I can," Sokrates said, quietly. "Euanthe wouldn't. Euanthe doesn't want to. Euanthe... was born to be emperor. I've taken that away from them. And I wouldn’t even entertain the idea of giving it back."

***

When Cass's name came out of the system they suspected it might have been rigged.

"It doesn't send the wrong idea, does it? For the next Apokine to still be a member of House Pelagios?"

That was one of Sokrates' aides talking. Cass looked up at their own name, spelled out in full on the holo-screen, with a sense of dread. Cassander Timaeus Berenice. There was a picture of them beneath the name - a recent one, formally dressed in what had so far been the Demarchy's characteristic mix of sector-wide fashion and traditional Apostolisian formalwear.

There were plenty of others inside the room, to bear witness to the lottery system at work. A murmur passed through the crowd, but this was just the algorithm -- from the start, there had always just been a percent chance that Cass would be chosen. Sokrates looked up at the holo-screen with a certain amount of satisfaction upon their face. This was the Demarchy's ideals put to the test.

"Remember, you aren't alone," Sokrates murmured, clapping Cass on the shoulder.

"Right," Cass replied, still in a bit of a daze. Sokrates had been attempting to mentally prepare them for this outcome for months now - but still Cass had been hoping it wouldn't happen. To be lined up as the next Apokine... For not the first time in their life, but for an entirely different reason, Cass thought that it shouldn't have happened.

"Congratulations," Euanthe said, a cold note in their tone. As they had so many times before, the three siblings stood together in the center of that room - a room where there had once been a throne. "Another member of House Pelagios holds the throne."

Sokrates' patience for Euanthe should have worn out a long time ago, but instead they made the same automatic correction as always - "No throne."

"Of course," Euanthe replied dryly. "Just an ultimate seat of power that isn't a throne."

Seeing Euanthe's contempt now, Cass remembered that strange period of time, many years ago now, when they had been the only scion of House Pelagios left - when Euanthe had been comatose, and Sokrates a traitor to their people. Euanthe looked younger than Sokrates did now, having not borne the stress of exile, staging a revolution, and hosting Integrity within their own body. Euanthe had been disfigured badly during the war and patched back up once they'd awoken, and there were places where you could see the shimmery defects in their patches of artificial skin, even though it had been the best cyberware on Apostolos at the time. Somehow it made them look more dignified, even at their most petty.

"I have faith in Cass," Sokrates said.

"Cassander," Euanthe said, slowly. Cass and Euanthe were on better terms than Sokrates and Euanthe were, and it was rare for Euanthe to not use Cass' nickname. "You were once the heir apparent. How does it feel to be in that position again?"

"Euanthe," Sokrates said, a warning tone in their voice.

"Let them answer," Euanthe said imperiously.

Cass swallowed. "Back then... being heir meant that I had somehow gone from being third child to only child. I didn't want that. I couldn't possibly have wanted that."

Both older siblings sobered up at that. Euanthe sighed, and their expression relaxed from a scowl to a smile tinged with sympathy and shame. They raised a hand to squeeze Cass's shoulder. "Yes, you're right. I shouldn't use that time against you. It was never your fault."

"Cass, you aren't alone this time. I and all of my advisors will be available to you."

"Cass..." Euanthe shook their head. "And Sokrates. There are times when I remember what it was like to be dead. All three of us have been only children before. So that we can stand here now and squabble with each other seems miraculous. I may be dissatisfied, but... The people of the so-called Demarchy are the Apostolisian people and the Apostolisian people are our people. I know each of us would die to defend them. So, in a way... I cannot say I am ashamed of House Pelagios. Even if begrudgingly - I admire you both."

Sokrates smiled. "Thank you, Euanthe. I know we don't agree, but you have always provided your support when the people were at risk."

"And I will again," Euanthe said.

***

"Sokrates is dead," Cass said.

A pained expression crossed Euanthe's face on the communicator. "Gods... No. We were prepared for that. Sokrates lived and died proud."

"Are your forces ready, Euanthe?"

"Yes. Cass - I think I will be dead soon, too. We have to fight with everything that we have. To withdraw now would be a disgrace to the people."

"Euanthe..."

"It isn't a bad thing. In the final years of my life, I had my siblings back. And I saw both of you proud and capable even when I was not." Euanthe smiled. "Fifteen years ago, I thought I had died for Apostolos. It's in a far better place now than it was then. I am not afraid to do it again."

Cass's eyes were still wet with tears from their farewell to Sokrates, and now they began to flow freely. "I know. We'll both fight with everything that we have."

"You are my own blood, Apokine Cassander. I love you."

"I love you too."

The communication channel closed. From another screen on the Apokine, Cass saw Euanthe's elite fleet of Colossi moving through the Demarchy's territory, the golden sails allowing them to intercept Rigor's forces before they reached civilian space.

"I've been an only child for over a decade," Cass said to themselves, as communications began to come in from their own forces.

"No one is an only child in Apostolos," the Apokine replied.

***

Cass thought, this was fate. The Apokine's golden spear, blazing with energy, must have been designed to kill Rigor. They couldn't even think of another possibility.

Rigor still writhed, its enormous body impaled in place. Cass thought, Euanthe and Sokrates had died proud, in the heat of battle, knowing that they sacrificed themselves for their people. Cass knew that they were doing the same, but the slow descent into September's sun allowed doubts to creep in once the adrenaline had worn off. Had they been a good ruler for the Demarchy? Who would be chosen next? Sokrates had helped assemble the selection pool a year ago, and the next Apokine would be someone who had never felt the weight of royal blood.

This was the end of House Pelagios. It seemed fitting, for the royal line of Apostolos to end here, defending it to the death. Yet it seemed strange, that Cass was the one to make the final sacrifice against Rigour. They had half-expected to see the Righteous Regent here as well, Jace Rethal's blade struck through Rigour's chest alongside the Apokine's. But as they'd already discussed with Aria, that wasn't the case. Aria's entire life now stretched out in front of her, while Cass was here alone...

Sokrates and Euanthe had told them to be proud. Cass couldn't fight off their exhaustion. They tried to tell themselves that they had lived proud and could die proud. Sokrates was dead but their dreams, their democracy lived on. Euanthe was dead but their people were safe. Cass would be dead soon, and out there in the Golden Branch star sector, they had friends who could continue their lives. The Demarchy, the sector, everyone who was still alive could keep going. It was possible - that there was nothing to be ashamed of.

In this sector fraught with politiking and self-interest, there were people who could flourish. People like... Cass thought of how Aria had looked in her symbolic ballgown, tears streaming down her face as they bid each other farewell for the final time. Cass thought of how Mako, who still seemed absurdly young to them, had shown up to that dinner in his ridiculous clothes. Cass thought of Orth's grim confidence as he passed Apotine back into the possession of the Demarchy. Cass thought of the Apostolisian children they would meet during events back home, and of how Maxine had laughed when she fell off their little fishing boat into the water, and how they and their siblings had even been able to laugh with each other a few times in the last four years, and the ex-Diaspora or ex-Oricon citizens who, brimming with hope, would leave their homes to join the fledgling Demarchy instead...

It was possible that there was nothing to be ashamed of. Outside, Rigour still thrashed, but its movements were getting weaker. The inside of the Apokine grew ever hotter, and its systems were going into overdrive. On the screens, they could see the Demarchy's forces beating back Rigor's all across the territories, the Colossi flying proud with their golden sails. One by one, the screens closed, until there was just one - a shot of the planet Apostolos, a beautiful orb in the void of space. Cass could hear victory cheers coming from somewhere.

The Apokine surged with power from the victorious Apostolosian people, but its physical systems were still faltering under the heat and gravity of the sun. The life systems inside Apokine slowly shut down, and Cass shifted its remaining power into the spear. It was very, very hot now. Cass was sweating and light-headed inside their flight suit, and soon the environmental control provided by the flight suit would fail too.

They willed themselves to die proud. In their final moments, Cass saw the flash of light as Rigor was swallowed by the star - and allowed themselves to close their eyes as they were swallowed, too.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I was too upset after the COUNTER/Weight finale to leave my apartment to do laundry. Please talk to me about Friends at the Table on twitter [@imperialhare](https://twitter.com/imperialhare).


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